Brown Paper Drawings #1 & #2

Even though my vision is poor, I had the bright idea to make a brown paper book. Pencil lines disappear on this paper. Ink lines are questionable. Colors are chosen by what is printed on the pencil. Fun times.

That is the most stupid owl I have ever seen. It is an insult to all owls. Sadly, I will admit the drawing is mine.

More tree practice. I'm actually getting a little more comfortable with trees.

Old Planner with New Sketches #5

 

More practice with trees. One day they will be easier.

Old Planner with New Sketches #2

More sketches made in an old planner. One day I'll get the hang of trees. The branches are passable, but the leaves never look right.

Old Planner with New Sketches #1

Planners are a waste for me because I never use them. Sometimes I'll write in birthdays and maybe one or two dates, but then they only take up space.

They make great scratch pads for quick notes, doodles, practice sketches, or playing with ideas!

These were all done in very poor lighting using the wrong eye glasses. In fact, I could barely see what I was doing. There are more scans coming, and I plan to keep scribbling under the same conditions in my unused planners.

Green Trees or Blue Trees?

This vision problem is interesting at times. I hope the trees in the background are green. I can't tell the difference between dark green and dark blue, and once I started mixing colors on the palette, I became confused about what was where. Blue was on my palette to mix the greens. Previously I had a problem mixing the greens I really wanted, but now it is ridiculous.

Image based on a photograph from the WetCanvas Image Library.

Pastels #25 & #26

Another one for the September Pastel Strokes at WetCanvas.

8"x10", Flannel Gray Canson Mi-Tientes.


This one was for the October Landscape Challenge at WetCanvas.

8"x10", Flannel Gray Canson Mi-Tientes.

Not happy with either one, so I will count them as more practice with pastels.

Pastel #23

Done for the September Pastel Strokes at WetCanvas.

9"x12", Canson Blue Mi-Tientes.

Oil Painting #15

Another Landscape Challenge from WetCanvas. This one was for July, but I did not get around to it until the first of August.

5"x7", oil on canvas.

Pastel #20

This is a WetCanvas! Landscape Challenge from last year that I never got around to doing until now. I need to try this one again with more time and patience.

5"x7", Steel Gray Canson Mi-Teintes.

Oil Painting #13

This is for the WetCanvas! May Landscape Challenge. After uploading this image, I see a number of places that need adjustments, but I ain't gonna do 'em!

While playing with pastels, I have neglected other media, but I have learned so much with the pastels. It's wonderful how experience with one medium translates so well to another.

5"x7", oil on canvas pad.

Pastel #15

Another WetCanvas! Pastel Strokes for May try. It is not what I really had in mind, but it is okay. My mechanics of using pastels must be improving because this one is on Canson Mi-Teintes, and the several layers of pastels behaved beautifully ... or I got lucky and don't know how.

8"x10", Canson Mi-Teintes.

Oil Paintings #7, #8, & #9

My computer died the end of October, though I did not receive the final bad news until this past Friday, so now I'm using my really old computer. Between my ADD and my slow, old computer, I may wander away before completing this post.

One would think that I would use the time without a computer to practice drawing and painting a lot, but I did very little. Reading how-to art books took up some time, and I hope I absorbed some of the information.

These paintings were done from photographs in The Big Book of Painting Nature in Oil. I did not try to do them like the paintings in the book.

All 5"x7" on canvas pad.

Since these have been drying for two or three weeks, I tried scanning them instead of photographing them. The oil colors are much closer to the originals than when I scan watercolors.

EDM #145 - Draw a Fall Tree

EDM #136 - Draw Something That's Alive

This was fun to do, and would you believe that it's alive? Trees are beautiful, comforting, and the living home of many creatures.

I considered placing birds on all of the branches but decided this tree is silly enough without being loaded down with birds. Besides, my attention span would not have lasted through one branch.

WetCanvas! Invitation to Hawaii

After stalling for a whole month, I finally tried the February WetCanvas! Invitation To Paint Hawaii. Yep, I can see sky, ocean, and palm trees!

EDM #112 - Draw Something Fresh

An ocean breeze is always refreshing. When driving from inland to the beach, the scent of upcoming salt and sand is exciting. After a day at the beach, the most refreshing thing is to shower off all the accumulated salt and sand!

This is in a little sketchbook made by using the directions at Nina Johansson's blog. More pictures here. The paper used is a half sheet of Raffine 90# watercolor paper, and the finished size is 3-3/4" x 5-1/2". I was uncomfortable with the bounce of the folds, so I used a two-needle coptic stitch to stabilize the little book. I had never stitched a book before, and it was surprisingly easy. Today I noticed a greeting card that I recently received was about the same size as the little sketchbook. I scored another fold in the card and trimmed one side for a perfect fit as an unattached cover.

My previous post was also done in this sketchbook.

Last Page of First Moleskine Sketchbook

Dumb drawing, but it's the last page of the Moleskine sketchbook I started in February. During this time I've completed one Moleskine watercolor book with only EDM challenges, and I've almost completed another Moleskine watercolor book.

I used my new Lamy Safari pen with Noodler's Lexington Gray ink. This is my second Lamy Safari, and I'm really disappointed. Though the nib is EF (extra fine), it's more of a medium point. My first one also has an EF nib, but it's not smooth. This one is smooth, but I prefer a truly fine nib.

The Noodler's Lexington Gray is interesting. It's the color of graphite. I'm ordering another Pilot 78G with a fine nib so I can have the extra fine line I'm after with this ink. I think I will enjoy this ink. Sometimes black ink seems too stark for my mood at the time.

WetCanvas! Again

Yet another WetCanvas! Invitation/Challenge has been subjected to a watercolor attempt by me.

Too fiddly. I just can't seem to loosen up, though there are a few areas that aren't as tight as the others. I quit when I knew I would only fiddle more. Also, too much time was invested in doing the master and transferring it to the paper, so I may have tired of it before the watercolor was added. This one may be worth a second try in a few months.

5"x7", Fabriano Aristico paper, MaimeriBlu and W&N watercolors.

Sketch from Photo Album

Each branch in largest tree had to be redrawn because of direction, and 90% of the branches were left out. This one will be tried again another time ... after my brain unscrambles. At least the photograph is nice.

From Photo Album

Copying images from my photo albums again. I would not have hurt me to pull out my circle template for the lamp. Next time. The girls were in the dunes at the beach. Even though the mouth is wrong on the smaller girl, the expressions and poses are right. Too bad I can't erase ink.